December 14, 2009

Aravis today announced that it has co-led a highly complex transaction involving the second closing of a total Series B financing of CHF 44 M (USD 43 M) in Evolva SA
and the reverse merger of Evolva SA with Arpida Ltd. The merged company was listed today on the SIX Swiss Exchange as Evolva Holding SA (SIX: EVE).PDF Download

December 14, 2009

Evolva Holding SA (SIX: EVE) (formerly known as Arpida Ltd.) today announced the final closing of its Series B financing round, the completion of its merger with Evolva SA, the change of the name from Arpida Ltd. to Evolva Holding SA and the listing of its shares issued in connection with the merger.PDF Download

October 22, 2009

MerLion Pharmaceuticals (MerLion) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the clinical testing of finafloxacin. MerLion will initiate the Phase I clinical trial in the US to evaluate the pharmacokinetic profile, safety and tolerability of finafloxacin in groups of healthy volunteers stratified by age and gender.PDF Download

October 07, 2009

Omeros Prices Initial Public Offering of Common Stock at $10.00 Per Share

Omeros Corporation today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 6.82 million shares of its common stock at a price of $10.00 per share. The underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional 1.02 million shares to cover over-allotments, if any. All of the shares of common stock are being offered by Omeros. The common stock is expected to begin trading on The NASDAQ Global Market on October 8, 2009 under the ticker symbol "OMER."PDF Download

September 10, 2009

Arpida and Evolva plan Merger

Arpida Ltd. (“Arpida”) and Evolva SA (“Evolva”), two Swiss biotech companies, today announced that they intend to merge the two companies subject to definitive agreement and shareholder approval. Arpida is listed on the Swiss stock exchange (SIX Swiss Exchange: ARPN) while Evolva is a privately-held company with
headquarters near Basel and operations in Denmark, USA and India. The intended merger creates a company with promising growth prospects based on a pipeline of clearly differentiated drug candidates addressing major medical needs and a number of discovery partnerships generating significant revenues.PDF Download

July 16, 2009

Evolva successfully completes Phase I Single Ascending Dose Trial on EV-077 for renal and cardiovascular indications

Evolva SA, a Swiss headquartered international biotech company focused on the discovery and development of drugs based on its genetic chemistry platform, today announced it has completed a single ascending dose Phase I clinical trial in healthy volunteers with EV-077-3201-2TBS.PDF Download

June 29, 2009

Symetis closes CHF 23 million financing to complete clinical development of Acurate TAtm, an innovative percutaneous valve replacement system

Symetis SA, a privately held company developing an innovative percutaneous valve replacement program, announces today that it raised CHF 23 million in a new financing round co-led by Wellington Partners and Vinci Capital–Renaissance PME. Banexi Venture Partners has also joined the round together with existing investors Truffle Capital, Novartis Venture Fund, Aravis Venture as well as BiomedInvest and private investors.PDF Download

May 14, 2009

Anaphore, Inc. Announces $13 Million Second Closing to Series A Financing

Anaphore today announced it has raised an additional $13 million in a second closing to its Series A Preferred Stock financing announced in January 2009, bringing total proceeds to $38 million. SR One, the independent corporate venture fund of GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Serono Ventures, the strategic corporate venture fund of Merck Serono, and Aravis SA have joined Anaphore’s existing investor syndicate of 5AM Ventures, Versant Ventures, and Apposite Capital. The additional proceeds significantly extend Anaphore’s operating runway and will accelerate development of Atrimer™ drug candidates – a new class of protein therapeutics Anaphore is developing to address significant unmet medical needs for patients with serious or life-threatening diseases. Dr. Simeon George, Partner of SR One, has joined Anaphore’s Board of Directors.PDF Download

May 13, 2009

Synosia Therapeutics Begins Phase I Trial of a New Generation Treatment for Cognitive Impairment

Synosia Therapeutics announced today that it has started a Phase I clinical trial of SYN-120, its new generation 5-HT6 antagonist under development for the
treatment of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. The study will assess the safety and tolerability of single ascending doses of SYN-120 in healthy volunteers.PDF Download

May 12, 2009

NovImmune, an immunology-focused biotech company dedicated to the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, announced today that it has raised CHF 62.5 million (USD 54.8 million) to take back control of its lead compounds (NI-0401 and NI-0501, a fully human monoclonal antibody to CD3 and interferon-gamma, respectively) and for further development of its pipeline. The transaction was led by BZ Bank Aktiengesellschaft.PDF Download

March 19, 2009

ImVisioN Therapeutics AG, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering intralymphatic immunotherapy (ILIT™), today announced that it has obtained positive Phase I clinical results for its lead product, IVN201 (Cat-MAT), an immunotherapeutic product for the treatment of cat dander allergy.PDF Download

February 09, 2009

ENTREMED presents initial Clinical Results for ENMD-2076

EntreMed, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENMD), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases, today announced recent developments in its program for ENMD-2076, an Aurora A/angiogenic kinase inhibitor. These developments include the presentation of initial results for a Phase 1 study in patients with refractory solid tumors as well as preclinical data showing significant potential for the use of ENMD-2076 in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy in breast cancer. In addition, EntreMed has received an Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for the treatment of multiple myeloma using ENMD-2076. To further enhance its clinical development efforts for the drug candidate, a No Objection Letter was received by EntreMed from Health Canada permitting ENMD-2076 to be used in clinical trials within Canada.PDF Download

January 08, 2009

Aravis Venture II today announced that it co-led the closing of a CHF 32 M (USD 29 M) Series B private financing in Synosia Therapeutics, a Swiss clinical stage biotechnology company developing treatments in Neurology and Psychiatry. Aravis Venture II led this investment round together with Investor Growth Capital of Sweden and was joined by Swiss Helvetia Fund as well as existing investors of Synosia Therapeutics.
At the same time, another Aravis II portfolio company, S*BIO, announced a collaboration with Onyx Pharmaceuticals for which it received a USD 25 M upfront payment and equity Investment with further potential future options & license fees and milestone payments worth up to USD 525 M. Aravis II was colead investor in the USD 26 M Series B financing in October 2008 for this Singaporean oncology company.PDF Download

January 07, 2009

Synosia Therapeutics Raises CHF32 Million in Series B Private Financing

Synosia Therapeutics today announced the completion of a CHF32 million (USD 29 million) Series B private financing. The proceeds will be used to fund the ongoing development of its emerging portfolio of phase II clinical programmes. The financing was led by Aravis Venture and Investor Growth Capital and was joined by Swiss Helvetia Fund. All existing investors - Versant Ventures, Abingworth, Novo A/S and 5am Ventures - also participated in the round.PDF Download

January 06, 2009

Omeros Corporation today announced that The Michael J. Fox Foundation has awarded it a $465,000 grant against milestones to support the Company’s collaboration with The Parkinson’s Institute evaluating Omeros’ recent discovery of a new target for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Located in regions of the brain responsible for Parkinson’s disease, Omeros is the first to link its novel target to the treatment of any movement disorder, including Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs
Syndrome. Omeros will continue to retain all of its rights associated with this novel target.PDF Download

January 06, 2009

S*BIO Announces Collaboration with Onyx for JAK2 Inhibitors in the North American and European Markets

S*BIO Pte Ltd today announced that the company has entered into a Development Collaboration, and Option & License Agreement with Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to
develop and commercialize S*BIO’s novel JAK2 inhibitors, SB1518 and SB1578.PDF Download